A stand-alone sequel to Season 1 of DanMachi and Sword Oratoria
Genre(s): Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Comedy
Age-Appropriateness: 14+ (Violence, profanity, partial nudity)
Platforms: None
Episodes: One 82-minute movie
TheAwersome Rating: 7.8 / 10 (Not bad)
Premise: Far outside Orario, in the ruins of an ancient city, a new threat arises. To counter this threat, the goddess Artemis has come to Orario in search of a champion—but it’s not Ais Wallenstein (the legendary Sword Princess) nor Ottarl (the strongest warrior to ever enter the dungeon) that she chooses. Rather it is Bell Cranel, a newbie adventurer partnered with the low-tier goddess Hestia.
TheAwersome’s Thoughts: This is your standard DanMachi fare: good action, pouty jealous girls fighting about Bell, and an overall quality fantasy anime experience. The overall vibe I got from this was very similar to Final Fantasy X to be honest: Plucky protagonist here to help out who’s going to eventually find out just how dire and heart-wrenching the plight is of those around him. You have your dorky eye-rolling antics and you have your ugly cry moments. I feel the movie got its dorky antics out of the way decently quickly and kindly didn’t ruin the emotional moments by bringing them back. The ecchi aspect is a bit toned down as well, not as much blatant fanservice as the main series, but there is a bit.
Since this is a stand-alone story, you don’t need to worry about watching it before starting on Season 2.
TLDR: Pretty standard TV-anime movie with not-necessarily-canon story, but if you can get a hold of it, worth checking out.
CHRONOLOGY: The movie takes place after Season 1 of DanMachi and Sword Oratoria, and before Season 2 of DanMachi (main series).
The first time we watched this, I didn’t get to fully experience this movie because the theater could NOT get its act in gear. They were restarting the movie 40 minutes in and then never getting the audio to stop cutting out and changing volumes, so I unfortunately didn’t get the great Immersive Theater Experience™ that I feel this one deserves, but I luckily was able to wrangle a viewing of the BluRay, so the overarching story was able to resonate better.
Something I’ve forgotten three times now to say is how Very Good the music is for the entire DanMachi series. I’m talking straight up Hans Zimmer, borderline John Williams at points. It’s part of what really connects you to the world and the story, so hats off to Inai Keiji for his excellent work on this.
At a Glance Anime 